We’d made our mind up that we would definitely go to Verona today and so were up early to get going. We’d been advised that the hotel would be without power today between 9 and 10-30 so wanted to make sure we had time for breakfast.
The weather forecast for our trip was dreadful, threatening rain all day and severe wind in Verona which could bring ‘a danger to life and property’. Interesting but surely an exaggeration…still -we took our umbrellas just in case.
Did I mention that yesterday we’d been sunbathing in the garden and swimming in the lovely pool? Not so much today as we woke upto a very grey day indeed.
We walked back up to the station -me in short sleeves and Jane sporting her raincoat and melting underneath it. We had no idea what train we were going to catch but hoped we might be on the delayed 8-49 which was running 50.mins late. These are Regional trains and maybe not so reliable as the high speed ones. We had to join a queue for the ticket office as tickets for regional trains can’t be purchased from the new fangled ticket machine. Funny really as on the walk up I’d been saying to Jane what a shame it is that back home we’re moving more and more towards ticket machines which is so difficulty for so many people. However, at the front of our queue was an older lady who talked incessantly with the lady behind the counter. God only knows what they were talking about but how could it take so long to buy one ticket!!!!!!! Everyone was getting irritated and by now the queue stretched out of the door. She was absolutely oblivious to this fact. Maybe ticket machines aren’t such a bad idea after all.
Anyway….we missed the delayed 8-49 but were soon on board the on time 9-49. You can imagine how excited I was when I saw that it was one of those green double decker trains! How cool are they and why don’t we have these back home? The train took about 25mins and so we were soon in Verona. Here we found the bus station and a very helpful lady who told us exactly which buses to get to the centre and where from. Easy peasy and in about 10 mins we had arrived at the Arena. This is the stadium famous for its open air opera concerts. However, from the outside we both had concerns about the state it was in as it looked like a major health and safety issue. We decided not to go in…danger to life etc….
Next we walked around to the Castelvecchio Bridge. The castle was built back in 1354 but the Germans had destroyed the brick bridge back in 1945 when in retreat. It had been rebuilt in 1949.
By now it had started to rain lightly but we continued our walk along the banks of the river and back across another bridge. We were now looking for Juliet’s house. Yes -that Juliet!! And specifically her balcony. It is inside a tiny courtyard filled with about a thousand tourists each eager to get a view. You can pay to go into the house and this then allows you to stand on the balcony and have your photo taken. We didn’t do that…
By now it was lunchtime and I’d come over all weary plus it had really started to rain. So we found ourselves a table underneath the awnings of a cafe on the busy Piazza Del Erme. I did a sketch of the scene filled with umbrellas and the Torre dei Lamberti whilst we ate a panini and enjoyed a beer. The rain was incredible and water was running everywhere under the table but we were just about dry.
Next I took us in search of the ‘best cake shop in Verona’ . Well this is v debatable as there are lots of amazing looking places but we took our pick in Pasticceria Flego. Jane loved her Cannoli and I continued my search for the best Tiramisu in Italy.
Then we decided we’d seen enough and it was time to make our way back to the station. When we arrived the heavens really did open and we were so glad we’d made it inside. We had an hour to wait for our train but we just sat on the platform and watched the rain and listened to its thunderous sound on the station roof.
Once on the train we were soon back in Desenzano where all hell had apparently been letting loose. It was here that the wind was still roaring and as we walked down the hill we saw that at least one big tree had come down right across the road. The police were still there and it had been chopped up to clear the road. Crikey..let’s get home quick by walking underneath all these swaying trees…..
As the lake came into view we could see the whitehorses dancing crazily across the surface. We were glad to make it back to the hotel in one piece.
Neither of us fancied going far for dinner tonight but we did venture out. The place we wanted to go to was closed (bad weather?) so we made do with John’s Burgers. This was basically the nearest place that wasn’t pizza or Japanese. It was a rather smart diner and the food was pretty good as we sat and listened to old rock n roll songs!
Tomorrow the weather is due to improve and we are hoping to explore a bit more of Lake Garda by ferry.
Where shall we go to next? 